Thu 14 Aug 2008
Movie Review – THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES (1964)
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[11] Comments
THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES. Hammer Films/Columbia, 1964. Christopher Lee, Barry Warren, John Cairney, Suzan Farmer, Michael Ripper, Duncan Lamont, Andrew Keir, Natasha Pyne. Screenwriter: Jimmy Sangster. Director: Don Sharp.
This is the movie that’s paired with The Pirates of Blood River (1960) in a recently released boxed set of Hammer films entitled “Icons of Adventure.” (You can go back and read my review of the latter here.) Both star Christopher Lee as the head of their respective ragtail crew of pirates, both were written by Jimmy Sangster, and that’s not all.
They both have the same basic story line. In the commentary track for this film, Jimmy Sangster even admits it, calling it your basic “Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours” plot, in which a gang of escaped killers take over a suburban household (or a gang of pirates take over an isolated village) only to find their captives not quite to be the pushovers they expected.
In The Devil-Ship Pirates, the pirates have been aligned with Spain at the time of the defeat of the Armada, and as one of the ships that survived but unable to return to Spain — and having no real allegiance to that country — land near an isolated village which they then take over, on the ruse that the Spanish won. The local mayor is all too willing to kowtow to the town’s new masters, but not all of the townsfolk are so readily inclined.
Comparing the reviews of both movies which I’ve discovered online, results as to which movie was favored over the other are mixed, but mostly it boils down to which of the pair you happen to watch first.
Myself, I think that the basic idea was fresher in Blood River, and the actors were better (Oliver Reed was in the first one, for example, and not the second) and unless my biases are showing, and I’m sure they are, even the actresses were comelier in the first. (But do take note of the lady above, the daughter of the local mayor and the rebel hero’s girl friend.)
Granted, what the first movie lacked were any scenes with a real boat in it. This one does, although I suspect that the ships shown firing cannons at each other in the opening scenes came from storeroom footage. But the ship that lands on the English shoreline, right up to the water’s edge, was carefully constructed and used as one of several primary filming areas.
The money that was spent on it was put to good use, but as the commentary reveals, the ship suffered a serious accident during the course of the movie, and it goes up in flames at the end – gloriously done, but perhaps as a direct consequence, The Devil-Ship Pirates was the last pirate film that Hammer Films ever did.
Overall, in spite of the second-hand story line, there is much to find in this movie to be entertained by. The English village was painstakingly re-created (and almost surely was used again, both before and after), and the colors throughout the film are gloriously vivid. Spectacular, as a matter of fact, as I hope these photos will attest to.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I watched Blood River first – some of it, anyway – and still prefer Pirates by a mile. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Sangster knows how to milk a storyline for all it’s worth.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Have never seen either of these movies.
In college years ago, saw Sangster’s crime thriller “Scream of Fear”, on the late show, after my parents had gone to bed. At one point, the heroine gave a particularly blood curdling scream. My father woke up alarmed. My mother told him soothingly, “It’s just the Scream of Fear”…
August 16th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Vince, You have to clear your mind of prejudices and watch Blood River. Even without ships at sea, it’s still the better movie. Trust me.
Mike, Scream of Fear, not so coincidentally, is another Hammer film, and Christopher Lee’s in it too.
I’ve never seen it, but with a recommendation like yours, I’ll get a copy and put into the queue.
Here’s what the poster looks like:
August 16th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Steve, if you’re considering Sangster’s Scream of Fear (UK: Taste of Fear, 1961), the first (and best) of Hammer’s who’s-driving-me-mad B-features following in the wake of the success of Hitchcock’s Psycho and, later on, Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), you may also wish to take a look at Sangster’s Paranoiac (1962), Maniac (1963), Nightmare (1963), Hysteria (1964), The Nanny (1965) and Crescendo (1969).
If you thought Hammer’s pirate movies had a certain sameness about them, then you’re likely to notice the Sangster/Seth Holt (director) template of Taste of Fear being worked to virtual exhaustion. Still worth a look, of course (but only if you’re a drinking man).
A slight but interesting variation was the Hammer-produced Fanatic (US: Die! Die! My Darling!, 1965), from screenplay by Richard Matheson, in which the lovely Stefanie Powers undergoes a particularly difficult time at the hands of Tallulah Bankhead.
On a similar note, producer-director William Castle also took up the Psycho trail with Homicidal (1961), Strait-Jacket (1963) and The Night Walker (1964), the latter two scripted by Robert Bloch.
Perhaps the making of a mini ‘Bates Motel’ film festival here…?
August 16th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Sure. Absolutely. And I’ll provide the popcorn!
But do you know, Tise, I’ve been wondering to myself. I remember seeing Psycho and one or two of the first Hammer horror films when they came out, but most of the movies you’ve just suggested we watch are only titles to me.
I didn’t go see any of them. I was in college and grad school all through the 60s, but I guess (it is difficult to remember exactly) other than strictly mainstream non-genre fare, I was into spy movies and foreign films then (French, Swedish, and Italian).
Obviously my film-watching credentials are severely tarnished. And here I am now, a senior citizen (at least according to Burger King), trying to make up for a misspent youth…
— Steve
August 16th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Ha, thanks Steve. Nothing tarnished or misspent about your youth, I would say (if world cinema was a part of your experience).
More likely, I’m the one with the hours of life squandered in darkness watching the most trivial of celluloid.
August 16th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Right! Brigitte Bardot, Lena Nyman, and Claudia Cardinale.
Among others.
As for the trivial, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m doing my best to catch up.
I call them undiscovered gems, though. (By me, at least.)
— Steve
August 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I tried to like Blood River, Steve. Honest I did. But if a movie doesn’t grab me in half an hour I turn it off, even if it means missing a blindfolded swordfight. Although if I knew which chapter of the DVD the swordfight was in …
Sangster’s Hysteria, mentioned above, turned up on TCM recently. Good fun. Another Hammer film that makes a virtue of its low budget.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Sangster even recycled the blindfolded swordfight scene in Devil-Ship, but watching two guys taking turns slugging each other is not nearly as much fun, even if one guy cheats.
With so much other stuff to watch — I have tons of movies taped from TNT before TCM came along, for example, and stacks of newly obtained DVDs all over the place, purchased from all over — I’ve not being paying as much attention to TCM as I should. Why pay for stuff when you can watch it for free? I don’t know why, but I do.
— Steve
August 16th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I’ve learned why I haven’t been following TCM’s schedule in recent months. Other than a wide scattering of films, but including a small selection of movies on Monday, which happens to be “Jack Palance day,” there’s nothing coming up in the next month and a half that hasn’t already been shown on the channel many times over.
Either that, or what’s on I have very little interest in.
This was a quick once over, so I’m going to try to do better day by day, so that I don’t miss the few movies I do want to record and save.
And as Yoda says, “There is no ‘try.’ There is only do.”
Or was that Yogi?
August 16th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I LOVE French and Italian movies, too, and watch them every chance I get. There are so many classics.
Of the films mentioned above, “Scream of Fear” and “Homicidal” seem like well made thrillers.
Neither is important a films as “Last Year at Marienbad” or “L’Avventura”!
The Jack Palance films on Monday TCM are mainly new to me too. These all must have been in a vault somewhere for the last 50 years.
Love the “Scream of Fear” poster!